David Horton asks "How do you recognize a civilized country?" He has a list of 25 criteria so far. Here are the first six: 1. The military-industrial complex plays no role in government. 2. Religion plays a very small role in society, not forbidden, but not compulsory. 3. Scientists, teachers,…
Last summer, I found myself dancing as an unpaid extra in a reality show. I'd been a dancing extra in a TV movie back in '98, and at least got lunch and minimum wage. This time I not only did it for free, but I had to sign a non-disclosure…
In my most recent post on Dangerous Intersection, as well as others previously, I've written about the many ways in which the traditional media has willfully discarded its obligation to inform the public. And so far, as the 2008 presidential election gets into full swing, there are no signs of…
I was meandering in cyberspace, and stumbled onto this column by Australian Michael Ruse: The struggle between evolution and creation: an American problem. This appeals to me after all the news about Australian Ken Ham and his Creation Museum here in the U.S. The muse of Mr. Ruse is that…
In the United States, the celebration of Mother's Day is kept alive mostly by the advertising of merchants. No one with a real stake in motherhood would trivialize motherhood by designating that it be recognized only one day each year. Today, a baby crow got blown out of a tree…